By Russ Ouellette
In the last go-round, I blathered on about one of my favorite tobaccos-Perique. This time, I’m going to address my first pipe related love, Latakia. When I was small enough that I could just reach the top of the end table in the living room, I fell in love with Latakia because Dad would leave the knife-lid can on it, and when he wasn’t around I would open the can and smell it for what seemed like hours. He smoked a Burley-based mixture with Virginia, Latakia and Deertongue. It smelled great in the can, and even better when he lit up. The campfire smokiness of the Latakia made me wish we were at the lake. That rustic, comforting aroma captivated me then, and still does today.

I want to thank the guy that gave me some Maltese Falcon to try at the 2009 Chicago Pipe Show. I don’t remember his name, but Maltese Falcon has become one of my favorite pipe tobacco blends. I have been smoking it for the last three days straight and I am not tired of it yet. I have had it in the morning, afternoon and night. It is tasty and delightful at anytime of day. To describe this tobacco in a word, I would say "Flavorful". It’s like a rich strong dark coffee with a little bit of milk and sugar added to tame any sharp bite you might get.

I’ve heard of aged tobacco, but 200 years old is really getting up there. Ok, the tobacco isn’t really that old, but Samuel Gawith’s Commonwealth Mixture is a Bicentenarian - meaning this pipe tobacco blend has been around for 200 years. I’m not surprised it’s lasted that long as it is one of the best pipe tobaccos I have ever tasted. SG Commonwealth Mixture was recommended to me by PipesMagazine.com member John Gioannetti, aka  "mate". I think I will take all of his recommendations from now on.

I was already anticipating something good when seeing the tin saying, "Full Strength Mixture", and I wasn’t let down.

Upon opening the tin, you see and smell a dark, smoky mixture. The tobacco in my tin was rather moist, but I just filled up a bowl and lit it up.

Even though it seemed too moist, I had no trouble lighting and keeping lit.

So you’ve been thinking of trying a pipe but you’re not sure of which tobacco to try? Perhaps it’s time to stop pondering which tobacco to use and just take the plunge and buy something that the tobacco store clerk recommends.

You see the fact is that the type of tobacco that a pipe smoker uses ultimately comes down to their own personal taste and what suits them. Just about every one of us has started off with a tobacco that was recommended by someone else but I would wager that almost none of us are still smoking that brand or blend of tobacco that we first started with.